After Madonna Decena, there is yet again someone whom the Filipino community will be truly proud of. The ten-year old, half-Filipino Charlie Green made it to the semi-finals in “Britain’s Got Talent” (2008) and received a standing ovation during his live audition.

He confidently sang Frank Sinatra’s “Summer Wind” and earned praises not only from the audience but also from the judges Simon Cowell, actress Amanda Holden and journalist Piers Morgan.

“Charlie, you’re fantastic. I think you’re a little star. I really really like you. I genuinely do not expecting to find someone like that. I thought it’s gonna be a disaster, it’s so changed. I’m absolutely thrilled,” Cowell commented.

I ate my words: while in the past few months I kept on saying I would not be finding something that is nursing related to occupy me, now I am in it.

Previously I was speaking of being a customer service representative, or more commonly called call center agent, and being a medical transcriptionist. But the circumstances were rather unfavorable. So I had no other choice but to jumpstart my nursing career, something which I have not hoped nor really wanted in the very first place.

It was lucky it wasn’t deadline yet for the submission of requirements for the hospital training (in Davao Regional Hospital in Tagum City) when I texted my friend Viviene after I dumped the idea of going into medical transcription or customer service representation. I had only a day to comply with the requirements and thanks God I was able to meet the deadline. So what were the requirements? As you can see in the right, it includes a photocopy of my Transcript of Records, college diploma, board exam rating, police clearance, resume, an application letter, a waiver from parents mentioning that the training does not give compensation of any kind (especially moolah!), a 2×2 ID pic and a 1×1 photo. I had to get my police clearance in the morning of the deadline as it was the only working day I had to get it. The deadline then was April 15.

I never wanted to be in the military force. Never ever. In my high school days, I signed up to train for the summer to have a good position in the Citizen Army Training (CAT) but I quit. I just was not for me. I can't stand the rigorous training -- waking up very early in the morning, do the jogs in twenty rounds and more, the push-ups, the heat, argh! It really was not for me.

But then when the school started again for my last year in high school, I joined the training for the Military Police. At least the training was way easier, plus we did so much of cutting trainings then while the superior's eyes were not at us. Ha ha. That was really funny. And yes, I really love the uniform. I love men in uniform! The camouflage, the belt, Bates boots, the fit and whatnots.

And now that I am a nurse, there is this thing in me that wants me to become a military nurse. We'll see about that. And for now, let me just focus on my hospital training first This is the left step, and yes, the step-to-the-right maybe that of being a military nurse. What do you think?

As registered nurses, we have to earn continuing professional education units required by our profession. That’s 60 units for three years, or 20 units a year. And I think this ought to be a must. Oh well, I am not quite sure as I haven’t known any case in which a registered nurse who had not complied with this was de-licensed or what. Or maybe I may have just been unaware. Whatever!

My former classmate informed us about a seminar about Total Parenteral Nutrition in Davao Medical Center, and that it would credit us 8 continuing professional education units. And so with no hesitations I signed up, woke up early that seminar day to travel from my city, Tagum, to Davao City. That’s just an hour drive if without heavy traffic.

Turned out, it was a bad seminar, I daresay. It started late, and before the seminar proper began, we were presented with a video as to how to prepare parenteral tubings and whatnots, with an audio that was oh so choppy you wouldn’t understand what it was talking unless you stick your ears to the very sluggish playback.

If America got a Filipina singer (or half-Filipina, that is) in the name of Ramiele Malubay in its “American Idol,” Great Britain also has its local talent show, “Britain’s Got Talent”-brewed Filipina power singer Madonna Decena.

Singing Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”, Madonna took the crowd and the judges to a high level excite and cry of amazement, even to the point of standing ovation, with her mighty voice during the second episode of Britain’s Got Talent (GB’s version of “America’s Got Talent”) Season 2.

Madonna is a 32-year-old single mom from Project 8, Quezon City who, after graduating Communication Arts in Miriam College, left her two daughters, aged 5 and 6, to go to England and work as a performing artist.

She is a club singer and had performed recently in a Charity Gala at The Opera House in Blackpool with Frank Carson and Joe Longthorne. She also guested with the Andy Prior Big Band on New Year’s Eve at The Grand Theatre, in Blackpool too.

Being with nature can provide a great deal of relaxation especially for the stressed mind and body. You can either go to an oceanarium, talk a walk in the seashores, swim, or bask in the sun, or dawdle in a botanical garden to meet the best of both worlds, nature-wise.

What better place to be one with nature at its best than to be at Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center. This 252-acre green center is located in the heart of Orange, Texas and is a program of the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation, which aims to improve the quality of life in Southeast Texas and likewise assist and encourage education, that's why they offer free education tours for students from Tuesday to Friday.

Included in the Nature Center are the Nature Discovery Center (a hands-on exhibit), a laboratory, and three classrooms located outdoors deep in the cypress swamp. There is an Exhibit Hall, Exhibition Greenhouses, Children's Garden, Discovery Theater, Garden Store, and Café.

The Botanical Garden mainly features five formal “rooms” and four sculpture “rooms”, both of which contain more than 300 plant species. There is also a bird blind near the Botanical Gardens so visitors can witness and observe characteristics of nesting birds in it's heronry.

The idea of this nature facility arose from H.J. Lutcher Stark's inspiration by the mystical retreat confined within the book “Lost Horizon” and from then he wanted to create a place of truly amazing and indescribable beauty.

Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center will not only provide a place to relax but also to raise awareness to everyone of different ages about the ever degrading status of our present world environment and to increase campaigns on how to protect, save, and most of all love our Mother Nature.

We can’t blame her; some Filipino health team workers don’t live up to the oaths they took as sworn to their profession, especially some doctors and staff of the above-mentioned hospital.

The Victim’s Ordeal

The story started out with Jon (not his real name), 39, getting drunk one night, bringing a callboy to his pad after the latter offered him sex for a cheap one hundred peso fee, and eventually had sexual intercourse with the man. After a round of a male to male action, the callboy requested for a second round after being criticized by Jon for the size of his sex organ. Jon refused, yet the man persisted, this time using a body spray canister, and Jon fell asleep.

The morning he woke up, Jon felt painful inside him, which was even more painful when he tried to urinate.

Circumcision appears rather a hot issue in Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition Plus these days. Two of the PBB boys, Alex Anselmuccio and Kevin Flood, who came primarily from Europe, entered the house of Kuya with their European belief and culture of being uncut, although that has nothing to be focused about. It is in Europe where most boys are not circumcised, or where circumcision is not mandatory at all, as far as my knowledge and conviction tell me (thanks to the times I sneaked on my brother’s rather naughty video collections).

Alex decided to have his circumcision a couple of days ago, with the belief of being accepted socially (in Philippines) and also to help hundred Filipino kids circumcised for free. Kevin, during those days, kept his being uncut secret until some circumstances surfaced.

Kevin’s Test

One day Kevin awoke wetting up another housemate’s (Nikki’s) bed, and scrambled to wash and dry the mattress with the help of Alex. He then approached Kuya to confess personally this incident, and Kuya perfectly understood him and didn’t blame him for that. When consulted about this mishap, a resident psychologist, Dr. Randy Dellosa, explained that this can happen normally as a result of very deep sleep, stress or tension, a relationship problem, or repressed rebellion. Kevin said it was a reaction towards the pressure of his dad’s presence and the nominations.

By saying “my Vincent Bueno,” I don’t intend to claim him as mine. Just read on, so you’ll know…

Spending my time yesterday online got me kind of bored. Although there were many ideas (and even lists) that I have to do to post here in my blog, I was too lazy to start composing any of them, and while waiting for someone to chat with on Yahoo! Messenger, I whiled away my remaining time by searching for my name in Google Search.

There they were; names after names rolled in the results, some pertaining to the real “me” and some only had the same first name and surname as to mine, though not really as one name. Most of the results returned, and they were mostly on top of the search engine results page (SERP), were from my other blog, My Consoling Asylum, and from the pages of the December 2007 Philippine Nurse Licensure Examination results posted by various Philippine Regulation Commission (PRC) mirror sites.continue reading...

Connecting to our friends, both new and old, in the previous decades was way harder than it is now. Thanks to modern technology. Mobile phones have spawned easier connectivity between people, and the advent of internet has largely help in our connection to people around the globe. And speaking of internet, it is another thanks to the social communities that have constantly sprung up.

Personally, social communities had helped me a lot to meet new friends and the old, almost forgotten ones. There is only one social community that I maintain as of this time, but I do not really frequent it. I kind of don’t approve very much of their system. But if you join 3gb community www.3gb.biz, you will be amazed that they have this chat system so you can talk with other members, plus their mp3 system so you can hear the mp3 hits uploaded, if music is what grabs your taste like in my case. You can also have your blog in this community, too! And just like other social communities, you can upload your photos and share them to your friends, or join groups if you want.

You may have thought that I, Zang, the one who owns this unfortunate blog, may be already dead, at least in the blogosphere, but I am not. As what this post title says, I am just sick. Sigh...

Yes, literally I am sick. Three days back I felt that my throat was scratchy and the night of that day it worsen, leading into an increased temperature of this body of mine. And in the proceeding days, it has resulted to nasal congestion and some cough; I had (and still have a bit, though now recovering, of) influenza. Grr. I hate this. It makes me more oblivious and ignorant to my blogs.

And that's just the story of the literal "sickness".

But figuratively, I was also sick of thinking what really should I do with my life. The call center which I applied for called me last week (after over a month of waiting) and said that out of 20 male applicants, there were only two of us who passed. Sounds good, but it didn't sound any better to me that time. I was tired waiting for over a month, when they say I have to wait for only 2 to 3 weeks only. I don't know what's wrong with their agency though why they have a stringent screening to male applicants. On the call the caller asked me whether I'd be pursuing that career and with no pauses I said "I'm not sure anymore," and then she began to speak about their company as the best agency in the city, that I'd be getting good salary, blah blah. As a reply, I calmly said, "I have already decided to work in another agency, but not a call center agency." So then she said she will just call me back after two days to check for my final decision, and sadly, she didn't do. She must have already been discouraged. Not that I regret it...

So there I was, inquiring about how to become a medical transcriptionist. But during the orientation, I was rather dismayed. Enrolling is never a problem to me, but when she said I will be under training for four months, in my mind I said "no, I am not taking this one. I need something that will help me earn salary as soon as possible and if that I am going to take this, I'd rather have my training as a nurse. It is just three months and I will only pay 3,000 pesos, rather than this--25,000 for 4 months with no salary until absorbed? That was totally crazy.

I am registered nurse and it is just but right I will take the training in the hospital, although at first I didn't approve of this. But watch out, one of these days you might be getting updates as my being a "NURSE" here in this blog or in my other blog.

God bless me... and sorry for kind of neglecting my blogs these days...

Are you running a business of any type? Do you want to increase your sales and overall profitability? In the world of business, you have to try a lot of techniques to actually improve your business performance. One thing that you can try that will help boost your business is the thing called lead management.

What does this do? To facilitate this technique, you need to have a web-based software application to manage the handling of sales leads, like what AIMpromote provides. You cannot only handle sales lead with this software but it can also give you the ability to actually sell leads (lead aggregation business). It is like customer relationship management (CRM) only that it focuses on handling leads.

In choosing actual lead management software, choose one whose ease of use is unparalleled, with various unique features, smooth workflow and excellent customer service to give your business the edge over you competitors.

If you are starting a small business, AIMpromote can help you track your leads from web campaigns, to lead, to close and actual revenue and thus will help you increase each of those lead, close rate and revenue. Now that is worth a try! Don’t get left behind by your competitors.

No matter how you put it, when you are in school, you have to meet and do every assignment or project given to you, or you will fail. More often than not, the assignments given while we are at school composed mainly of writing, and that would really come very difficult if writing is not your forte at all.

But worry no more, because Custom-Essay.org, a one of a kind custom writing service, is “to the rescue”. If you have just been given a formal essay assignment, they will do the job for you with supreme quality and in a timely manner, so you’ll never miss out on deadlines, let alone your personal review of their essay done for you.

Be it about Finance, Philosophy, Marketing, Information Technology, Business, Management, or whatever your writing needs are, their competent staff writers are all geared up towards helping you achieve an A+ work. They even do French essays! You see how flexible their skills are. Aside from all that, they also do professional essays, term papers, research papers, templates, and writing, editing and proofreading. Their works are totally plagiarism-free and they offer free plagiarism report to make sure it’s all original content.

You have got to try them out if you need an aid in writing your essays…

Women regard various things as their ultimate glory: their signature bags, designer clothes, expensive sandals, and even plainly their hair-do's as their crowning glory. And yet a man by a woman's side can be her glory, too.

But what about men? What are their ultimate glory?

Blatantly put, what most men regard as their ultimate glory is their tool. Yes, that dangling, copulation organ of theirs. With the influence of modern media more and more men are becoming overly conscious over their schlong's size to the point that they would try every penis enlargement method the new technologies have to offer.

Men can undergo surgery to enhance penile size, but they too can take penis enlargement pills to do the trick. And just how they think their penis is important in their life as an asset, it is equally important to be aware of the disadvantages and risks that fake or unverified penile enhancement methods can cause them.

If you are a man and is ashamed of your size, you might want to visit a penis enlargement review site to get full details on how to supersize your organ so as to fully enjoy and satisfy your sexual life.

Working in a medical field is very rewarding. Health has rapidly become everyone's concern these days that is why there is a great demand for professionals in the medical field like the registered nurses, medical transcriptionist, pharmacy technician, X-ray technician, among others.

And talking about x-ray technician, do you want to be one? Here's what it does...

The Job. If imaging technologies such as X-rays and MRIs fascinates you and you want operating cutting-edge medical technology,then being an X-ray technician is for you. X-ray technicians (also called radiologic technicians or radiographers) conducts imaging procedures as specified by the physician and prepare patients for radiologic procedures. As an X-ray technician, you must be well-versed with the correct positioning and placement of the X-ray equipment in terms of range and angles so that best pictures, which are very essential for diagnosis, can be obtained.

Workplace.It is in a radiology room where X-ray technicians work and they need to be physically strong to assist patients for the radiologic procedures, as some patients may be disabled and needs assistance for positioning. You may be dreaded by the thought that when you work as an X-ray tech you will be overexposed to radiation but it should be known that there is called the TDS employed to lessen or prevent radiation exposure. TDS means time, distance, and shielding; the last employs powerful lead shields that blocks penetration of the radiation. Generally, X-ray techs work 40 hour weeks, and may be on-call for emergencies.

Education and Training. Programs in this course or degree may last from 1 to 4 years. The former is good as accelerated certifications for RN's or for those medical professionals who opt to change careers. The most common is the 2-year program wherein an Associates Degree is earn, a tool for securing a position as an X-ray tech. A Bachelors Degree however may open opportunities to administrative or supervisory positions.

Salary.In 2002, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the middle 50% of Radiographic Technicians was $32,000 to $46,500 . The median annual earnings were $40,000, and the top 10% made more than $55,400.

Job Outlook. The Bureau of Labor Statistics envisions that employment of X-ray Technicians will “grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2012.” It has also been reported that there is difficulty in filling employer's openings for Radiologic Technicians, which means that there is greater opportunities for this kind of job.

If you want to know more about being an X-ray tech, you can do some search on the net and see if it's the one for you and your future.

When I watched 10,000 BC last time, one of the trailers before the feature presentation included Meet the Spartans. I must admit I was so enticed by it that I couldn't help the itch to watch the movie.

But because it didn't came too soon when I had the time to watch it in the cinema, I opted to watch the movie in a friend's house, along with some of my other friends, using a pirated DVD. (Oh I hope the cops are not after my friend).

And how was it? Boring and corny. There are more than nasty "ha-ha" you can give to the movie than the real, laugh-out-loud hilarity that you can get. I may not have admired and appreciated the movie because I hadn't watched 300, in which it is solely their focus of mockery, but my friends (who had watched "300") who were with me watching "Meet the Spartans" did not at all liked the Spartans. It sucks, they say.

Although the movie sucks, at least for our taste, it is still nice to note that this epic movie, starring Carmen Electra and the boys with make-upped chests and abs so that their bodies looked perfectly chiseled, had hit the top spot, edging out "Rambo". That's pretty amazing, to think that this movie is not at all very memorable.

"I think we tend to underestimate films like 'Meet the Spartans,' Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Media By Numbers, said.

Oh yes, he is right. We underestimated the movie. And if you have not yet seen the movie, I advise you not to waste your money on something stupid as this is. Or go ahead, watch at your risk, especially if you want a piece of Britney Spears again, and a Paris Hilton parodied.

I desire fame, do you do too? Oh, come on, who doesn’t want to be popular? We love attention that sometimes we seek it, or if lucky enough, we just get it effortlessly. And we so, so love it. Or at least, I do.

It isn’t arguable that most people of these times are narcissistic: they love taking pictures of themselves and show it to the world by way of photo blogs and of profile pages like those in the various social sites. Even videos had been invaded by this modern-world narcissism.

But how ever those are, if you fancy being watched by the world, get your camera on and be on live TV. You can show off your talents and amazing skills, create and enlarge your fan base and even share opinions with the other “narcissists”. You’ve got 15 minutes to fame through live broadcast, so show everything you got. Entertain the world with your live show and who knows, your video might be a viral one and you can become the next internet superstar. How’s that?

You may have thought nursing is the only medical or health-related profession that is enjoying high demand for employment nowadays, but that truth is that there is seemingly a huge insufficiency in numbers of employee in the health team in the US hospitals nowadays. That's why you can just imagine a number of nursers from the so-called nurse factories in the world—Philippines, India and China—migrating to work in US. But did you know that aside from nurses, you can still get a good future by being a pharmacy technician? What does this job do?

A pharmacy technician assists licensed pharmacists, either in hospitals or in pharmacies. A pharmacy tech aids in providing prescribed medication and other health care products to patients. Counting tablets, labeling bottles and ensuring that meds are still viable for use are some of their routine tasks.

How much does this pay? In 2002, median hourly earnings of pharmacy techs were $10.70, but these wages vary. Here are the factors that affect pharmacy technician salary:

This job is really a good alternative for those who does not want to spend much in their education and training and still earn a decent amount of salary. For more information, visit sites that describes comprehensively the functions and benefits of being a pharmacy technician.

Tuesday is actually my very Tag Day, but because I had been sort of busy the past few days (meeting high school classmates, some shopping, constructing my new site Zang Caesar), I am posting my tag today. Anyway, what day tags are posted doesn't really matter. Does it?

The first tag is from Monaco, although JoanJoyce and Mckhoii also did this to me. This is called Humanline.

Rule: Copy the entire list and add your name below the person who tagged you. Then tag at least 5 friends (But you can tag as many as you like) and visit their blog to let them know you tagged them.

For the second tag, I'm doing the ABC list, which was tagged to me by JoanJoyce. The rules are simple:

1. Copy all the links and replace a single link under the appropriate letter of the alphabet with yours - see an example above about the correct way to choose the letter. An explanation in your post about how to change the links will be nice as well!2. Put at the bottom of the list the replaced link and the full link to the tagger (meaning the link to the actual post where you got the list) - this ensures that you complied with the rule #1!3. You now have to “tag” at least five people and encourage them to take part of the game - tag blogs only and only those without bad rated material like pornographic, violence, racism etc.

The third tag that I will do is the one tagged to me by Ate J, it is entitled Life is Full of Gratitude. All you have to do is make a list of the people whom you want to give thank you for. I already did my Gratiturium last time, so I think I will just link back to it, as that itself will do. (I hope that qualifies at all, Ate J.)

Last but not the list the Technorati Authority Explode. Joanjoyce, Mckhoii and Makoy tagged me with this.

I have randomly selected 5 of you below to be tagged and I hope that you will similarly publish this post in your blog. You will have to tag 5 other bloggers and just keep adding on to the list. (Do not replace, just keep on adding! Yes we hope it will be a long list!)